What is Digg?Sponsored by Gilt Man
It's a Gilt Man's world view!
giltman.com - Get gear and gadgets at up to 70% off. Shop like a guy, dress like a man. You're invited.
75 Comments
- nickmas, on 11/09/2009, -3/+69TaxPayers' Alliance, you are completely right. Those firefighters could have been sitting in your driveway waiting for your house to catch on fire but were off rescuing some inferior living being. The nerve...
- nahsrocketeer75, on 11/09/2009, -3/+48Memo to TaxPayers' Alliance: No one gives a duck what you think.
- askantik, on 11/10/2009, -2/+39I bet $50 that there would be no problem if they were rescuing a family dog. Hypocrisy much?
FTA: "Whilst no one likes to see a duck suffering, animal rescue is not the central job of the fire service," she said. "In this case there were no emergency calls pending, but calls can crop up at the last minute which could be much more pressing than the rescue of a duck."
No emergency calls pending? Okay then, STFU. Someone always has to bitch even when nothing is going wrong. - scruffybr, on 11/09/2009, -2/+39Poor duck maybe we should stick the memebers of the lobbying group in the pipe and leave them there for 6 hours
- Jeff901, on 11/10/2009, -0/+32As a firefighter, I have personally responded to 2 pet calls...One to remove a cat from a tree and another to get an African grey parrot from a tree. Since the parrot didn't have clipped wings, that one proved challenging as we chased this one across town where we finally wetted the bird soapy water from the tank of the firetruck to prevent another fly-away.
That is what Fire and Police are there for; Protect and Serve, Life and Property
That is, Your life, the life of your family and pets....Your property. In that order.
.....As long as no buildings are burning down, there is no problem as far as I am concerned.
And should an emergency call "crop up", they can respond to that and come back for the duck later. - govsucks, on 11/10/2009, -0/+22As long as there were no fires during this period I see no problem with this. Firemen get paid to sit around and wait for fires anyway. Odds are they were cleaning equipment or the firehouse anyway.
- korvan504521, on 11/10/2009, -0/+17Exactly. They were still available for firefighting, better saving someone's pet duck than watching tv.
- akula89, on 11/10/2009, -0/+16if there were a 5 alarm fire 2 miles away, these firefighters would have been there in a flash. these whiners need to STFU.
- gankige, on 11/10/2009, -2/+18Dugg for the picture of one turtle mounting another...
Also, if everyone pays the same (relative) amount of taxes, so who's to say that the firefighters' time is better spent elsewhere? If any of these members had one of their own pets in a similar situation, I bet they'd be nothing short of grateful for the firefighters' devoted time. - sousademiami, on 11/10/2009, -0/+15Idiots, part of the reason fire departments do things like this is that it provides real-world training. Gives them a chance to practice for an emergency where a person may be trapped somewhere similar, and at less cost than mobilizing for a whole day where firefighters are using extra equipment on their off day and being payed overtime.
- theonlywizdum, on 11/10/2009, -0/+14The spend the same amount either way. I doubt that they had to use any of their multimillion dollar, one time use, duck saving apparatuses.
- ZincSaucier, on 11/10/2009, -1/+11LOL then why don't ducks start their own fire department and save their own kind? Pretty sure these firefighters didnt save the duck by flapping and quacking. Probably some tools involved
- cornfeed, on 11/10/2009, -0/+10If you can get dispatch to page us out we will come. And we will most likely make jokes about you back at the Barn. But we make these kinds of calls as a PR type thing. We want everyone in our communities to know we are there and that we care about what happens to all of you. Like Jeff901 said We Protect and Serve.
And yes, we will respond to a water rescue. Where I live there is no one else to respond. Did one this past summer. Jet-ski accident about 300 yards off shore. Had jury-rig a flotation device for the patient as injuries prevented us from getting them into a boat. Once to shore we loaded onto a long board and then transported to the nearest hospital 25 miles away. - charlietuna, on 11/10/2009, -0/+10Is it hypocrisy to say that you care about your girlfriend or child more than your neighbor? Or to say that you would kill a cow, but not the family pet? Human nature is not based on calculus. I'd eat a duck, but I wouldn't kill my pet duck.
This only shows that I'm human -- because humans are not coldly rational. - webaugur, on 11/10/2009, -0/+9It may seem stupid but its valuable real world experience. Could easily have been a child.
- SuperToaster, on 11/10/2009, -0/+9I bet the duck isn't doing any criticizing.
- jj101, on 11/10/2009, -0/+9Well like they say, "if you can't say anything sensible, STFU."
- fishwithaki, on 11/10/2009, -1/+10They saved a duck? Sweet. Aren't they paid via salary anyway? At least they did something besides sit around in the firehouse.
- peestandingup, on 11/10/2009, -0/+8I bet if these clowns were actually there, they would have felt much different.
Yeah, on the surface, it seems stupid. But Im sure that those guys would have felt awful just walking away from it, knowing it was gonna be killed. Im sure even if the order was given to leave, some would have even stayed & risked losing their jobs.
Sometimes, you gotta throw logic out the window & just do what feels right. Thats what makes us humans. - Solkre, on 11/10/2009, -0/+8A duck death panel?
- FormerBabby, on 11/10/2009, -0/+7There were firefighters in the US helping old folks with the DTV transition. There just aren't that many fires these days.
- ZincSaucier, on 11/10/2009, -0/+6What a bunch of quacks.
- Gibletoid, on 11/10/2009, -0/+6L'orange you glad you read this?
- sab0tage, on 11/10/2009, -0/+5It's pretty stupid IMO, it's not like the fire fighters are going to get an emergency call and go "Gee, we would like to go put out a fire, but we're in the middle of rescuing a duck at the moment, can you call us back in a bit?".
Seriously, if they are out and about rescuing pets (when not responding to emergencies) they are raising their community profile, which I don't think they have much of, unlike the police; it will make people consider them more valuable. - LokitheComplex, on 11/10/2009, -0/+4That actually sounds like a good reason. I was actually persuaded by your argument. Does that happen often on Digg?
- ibdav, on 11/10/2009, -0/+4@Zinc the bitter - Dugg up for first real LOL of the day.
- Raumschiff, on 11/10/2009, -0/+4DUCK THE TAXPAYER'S ALLIANCE!
- jj101, on 11/10/2009, -0/+4@askantik - "I just don't feel that it is ethically okay to blind ourselves to the suffering of other animals just because they aren't our pets"
We are not bound to their suffering. We are bound to eating them though. If you have a problem with that I suggest you take it up with serveral thousand years of evolution. Life is death dude. All living things consume something. Are cows callous to the suffering of grass? I know people say that grass doesnt compare because its a plant but I think they're just avoiding the argument.
Don't get me wrong - I'm all for minimising suffering accross the board, i think conservation and ecologically sustainable practices are of paramount importance but lets not turn into sentimental girls here. We live by eating other animals, like all top preditors. Such is life. - charlietuna, on 11/10/2009, -0/+3You quack me up!
- charlietuna, on 11/10/2009, -0/+3Ducks do better in water than humans.
- charlietuna, on 11/10/2009, -0/+3@askantik
You simply have never tasted a good pork chop. Mmmm the flesh of another being slaughtered to keep me (and my pet dog) alive. - bodger, on 11/10/2009, -0/+3The duck should be made to pay for this. Put it on his bill.
- Otto, on 11/10/2009, -0/+3What if a child had been trapped down there? In that case, it'd sure be awfully nice if the rescue personnel had done something like this before.
As long as there's no actual emergencies going on, this sort of thing is highly beneficial, and not just to the duck. It's called training. - KibblesnBitts, on 11/10/2009, -0/+3Go duck yourselves, TaxPayers' Alliance
- arpad, on 11/10/2009, -1/+3A local grocery store has frozen duck on sale. I've been meaning to have some duck and this seems like an appropriate time to do so.
I was looking for a "you kill" duck operation but it turns out there aren't any within a convenient drive's length. - govsucks, on 11/10/2009, -0/+2Dugg for the duck gettin in on the action. Threesome, yeah baby.
- theonlywizdum, on 11/10/2009, -0/+2Thats a government red tape problem. When I worked in IT for the local school department we were told that we couldn't even attach a MLTI laptop to a projector for a teacher, because the state had hired special MLTI people to handle all MLTI hardware. If it belonged to the state, we couldn't touch it. This sounds like the same thing to me, some government office trying to justify their special "water rescue" project by telling other emergency responders that they can't help in "water rescue" situations. It isn't that the fire department was unable to save them, its that someone up the chain told them they couldn't
- thedogfatherx, on 11/10/2009, -0/+2Awesome firefighters! ***** loser lobbyist. Lobbyist's you fail miserably. On top of that, you made yourself look like inconsiderate ***** bastards. Congratulations!
- skate3214, on 11/10/2009, -0/+2lolwut
- Jerk, on 11/10/2009, -0/+2Came here to say this. It was a duck *this time*. IMO, this provided them with invaluable information for the next water rescue.
- askantik, on 11/10/2009, -0/+2It is hypocrisy, in my opinion, that people are okay killing cows but not pets. And it's not about "caring," really, so much as it is about recognizing pain and suffering. Even though I may not "care" about some random guy that lives on the other side of town, I would never wish harm on him) unless I somehow knew he was a ***** person or something).
And I'm not basing anything on calculus... I just don't feel that it is ethically okay to blind ourselves to the suffering of other animals just because they aren't our pets. That'd be like saying that poor starving kids in Rwanda don't matter because we'll never meet them. Yes, I know that many people will say, "But that doesn't compare because they are humans," but I think when people say that, they are just avoiding the argument. - Bamboolemur, on 11/10/2009, -0/+2Whenever I pas by a local fire station here in Montreal, I see firefighters barbecuing and riding a stationary bike!
I'm pretty sure these folks had the time to save the little duckie, otherwise, they would not have taken the time. - LokitheComplex, on 11/10/2009, -0/+2Humans that don't put themselves before ducks won't last long.
- jj101, on 11/10/2009, -0/+2@slothanus - (charming handle btw) Except that we dont get saved from tornados by ducks and they then dont argue over whether saving us was a waste of time.
- solecize, on 11/10/2009, -2/+4It's a dick folks and it must be listened to at all cost!
- fuzzynyanko, on 11/10/2009, -0/+1You know what, those firefighters weren't doing anything at the time, and I bet it was a nice change from their usual routine. Their job is to run into burning buildings. If they want to rescue a duck, so be it.
- DittoMuch, on 11/10/2009, -1/+2The PR for this fire department is dreadful.
"although some might question the value of rescuing a duck we instead looked upon this as an opportunity to practice with a living animal in distress. Next week, next month or next year it could be a young child and we know better how to approach it after having dealt with this duck. Yes ignoring the duck might have been cheaper and might have been required if another emergency occurred but this is a very difficult circumstance to simulate and real world training improves our ability to save lives."
See as much as this sounds like a silly waste of tax payer money its actually a very cheap real world training exercise. They can practice all they want with dummies but dummies don't die if they make a mistake the duck would have. As silly as rescuing a cat from a tree might appear it also provides real world critical thinking and real problem solving that improves a fire department when they respond to more critical emergencies. These small real life instances are also far cheaper than simulated training, they don't have the overhead yet provide all the same lessons. - scruffybr, on 11/10/2009, -0/+1LMAO
- exaltedbladder, on 11/11/2009, -0/+1spokeswoman is a BITCHHH.
-
Show 51 - 76 of 76 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is